There were moments in Tuesday’s non-conference women’s college basketball contest at Bowdoin College’s Morrell Gymnasium that the Polar Bears seemed on the verge of putting a run together to take command.

Fans of the Bowdoin women have seen it on many occasions at home, especially against Gary Fifield’s University of Southern Maine Huskies.

Bowdoin, coming off a forgettable 40-point loss to the University of New England one week early, battled hard in a closer-than-the-scoreindicates 72-58 loss.

The Polar Bears are 1-3, with rival Colby slated to visit Bowdoin on Saturday at 2 p.m. USM is 5-0.

“I’m really happy with this group,” said Bowdoin coach Adrienne Shibles. “We are incredibly young, two players injured and one out with the flu, and we hung with a team that will for sure go to the NCAA Tournament. We made huge strides today.”

“We are still working some kinks out, but I am really proud of the girls,” said senior captain Kaitlin Donahoe, who led the Polar Bears with 19 points. “You are never satisfied with a loss, but looking at where we were last week, we were able to focus against one of the toughest teams we will see all year.”

Bowdoin was undone by a second-half cold spell, failing to cut into a 45-40 USM lead. The Polar Bears turned the ball over five times and missed three shots before the Huskies found their stride behind Rebecca Knight, who scored 21 of her game-high 25 points in the second half, including 15 straight at one point, to turn a 55-46 USM lead into a 70-52 edge with 2:16 remaining.

“It was an entertaining game to watch,” said Fifield. “We had two tough games in three days right after Thanksgiving. They had three days to prepare and put in a matchup zone, and that created some confusion until we figured out how to attack it.

“Bowdoin did a good job going high-low early and they hit some shots. You knew they were going to battle after a freak game at UNE where nothing went in the hole. I am really happy we came up here and got a win against that team.”

“I think this young group feels a lot of pressure, seeing all these banners hanging on the wall, and I told them to let that go, and if the attitudes are there every day I am going to be a happy camper,” said Shibles.

Solid start

Over the first five minutes, both teams hit from long range, with USM’s Erin McNamara and Nicole Garland hitting a 3-pointer each to counter two from Bowdoin’s Kirsten Prue, whose second moved the Polar Bears to within a point, 17-16, seven minutes in.

USM used a 10-2 run to pull out to a 27-18 lead as the Polar Bears missed eight of nine shots, and a free throw by Huskies forward Jordan Grant gave the visitors their biggest first-half lead, 33-23. Bowdoin closed the half on a 7-2 run to move to 35-30 at the break.

The Polar Bears shot 37 percent (10 of 27) from the floor in the opening frame, while the Huskies hit on 43.3-percent of their shots (13 of 30), but struggled from the freethrow line, 2-for-7, to keep Bowdoin close.

Bowdoin continued its run out of the gates in the second half, getting a pair of free throws from Donahoe and a lay-in by Shannon Brady to pull to 35-34, but a quick 8-0 run padded USM’s lead back to nine, 43-34.

The Huskies’ advantage hovered between five and nine points over a fourminute stretch. Down 45-40, Bowdoin was whistled for a pair of traveling calls, two lane violations and lost the ball out of bounds, allowing USM to maintain its lead despite its own struggles from the floor.

“We were satisfied to be close, but now we need to put the gas down and have someone step up and hit those big shots,” said Shibles.

Megan Phelps had a doubledouble with 11 points and 10 rebounds for Bowdoin, with Anna Prohl and Prue adding nine points each. Shannon Brady chipped in six points and seven rebounds. The Polar Bears were 21 of 49 (42.9 percent) from the floor.

Haley Jordan (14 points), Garland (13) and Nash Biliew (11) joined Knight in double figures for USM, which shot 47.3 percent (26 of 55) from the field and made 11 of 18 foul shots. Biliew led the Huskies with eight rebounds.

USM 72, Bowdoin 58

USM — 35 37 — 72
Bowdoin — 30 28 — 58
USM — Nicole Garland 5-0-13, Erin
McNamara 1-0-3, Rebecca Knight 10-4-
25, Haley Jordan 5-1-14, Jordan Grant 1-
1-3, Kaitlin Callahan 0-0-0, Stephanie Gallagher 1-0-3, Meredith Reid 0-0-0, Nash
Biliew 3-5-11. Totals — 26-11-72.
Bowdoin — Kaitlin Donahoe 6-4-19,
Shannon Brady 3-0-6, Sara Binkhorst 0-0-
0, Anna Prohl 4-1-9, Megan Phelps 3-4-
11, LeShauna Phinazee 1-0-2, Kirsten
Prue 3-0-9, Tori Munson 0-0-0, Siena Mitman 1-0-2. Totals — 21-9-58.
3-point field goals — (USM) Garland 3,
McNamara, Knight, Jordan 3, Gallagher;
(B) Donahoe 3, Phelps, Prue 3.
Records — USM 5-0, Bowdoin 1-3.
Next for the Polar Bears — Saturday at
home against Colby, 2 p.m.